Navigating their individual heartbreak, identity and struggles, 'Greta & Valdin' is a captivating literary debut following a queer brother & sister duo and their Maaori-Russian-Catalonian family.

Told through dual perspectives, this was a knockout debut that definitely has put Rebecca K. Reilly on my radar. I enjoyed my reading experience and found it both heartwarming, relatable and funny. I do think some of the characters blended into one another, but overall it's a good story and Reilly is a great writer.

Definitely one to add to the 'Cool Girl Reading Lists' that go around every summer.

This book was full of humour, laugh out loud scenes and likeable characters that allowed the reader to become immersed into a fictional world.

For me, it was a raw and insightful look into the human experience, which allows reader to dive into the chaos of the characters.

Writing was easy to follow, characters were chaotic but lovable and the novel spoke to many subjects that make this worth checking out.

Kind of loved this! The description hooked me in, especially the sally rooney and schitt’s creek references. So fun, would recommend to friends absolutely.

This book easily became one of my favourites ❤️ While I love so many of the books I read, I don't often re read them- I would read this one again in a second 😍
Hilarious and heartwarming, this story follows two siblings and their unconventional Maori-Russian-Catalonian family, while they navigate life, love, and identity. Full of emotion and humour, this book just made me happy from start to finish

This was not my favorite read of the year. I enjoyed the general story, the family relationships, and the sibling dynamics. However, I felt that some of this novel fell a bit flat. I enjoyed the dual point of view from the brother and sister, I found that there was a side story about the parents that wasn't fully explained and the novel ended pretty quickly without tying up some side stories.

This was a gorgeous, funny and queer novel centred on two Maori-Russian siblings living in New Zealand.

Valdin is real and neurotic and romantic. Greta is eccentric and strange and forthcoming. Their family dynamic is hilarious and bizarre and so tender. The ending is a cacophony of voices and POVs that played out beautifully in my head.

I highlighted so many clever parts of this book.
I never wanted it to end. Five shining stars.

3.5 ⭐

A wonderful debut by Rebecca K. Reilly!

I'll always love a book about gay people being messy, in love, and just living their lives! It was so heartwarming to read about a big gay supportive family <3

Thank you, NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had the pleasure of receiving an advanced copy of this novel from NetGalley, to review.

*Greta & Valdin* is a contemporary LGBTQIAP+ novel with romance by debut author Rebecca K. Reilly. The narrative follows the lives of siblings Valdin and Greta, and their points of view on life, family and love. Despite the lack of action, the story is engaging due to its richly written characters and slice-of-life narrative. The story also explores themes of love, heartbreak, and struggles with self-identity and acceptance. It’s quirky, fun and heartwarming and I loved every single second of it!! I couldn’t put it down!!! I’m looking forward to reading everything this author publishes. Congratulations on such a beautiful debut!!!

This book is hilarious! Get ready to fall in love with the main characters...

It is a comforting and hilarious story about an eccentric, modern-day family. This novel explores sibling relationships, growing up, and queerness.

This is the funniest book I have read in a while. It's witty and smart and made me actually laugh out loud more than once. It's always a joy to read a book where the sense of humour works for you.

While Greta and Valdin explores a lot of complex dynamics, the core of this book is the sibling relationship between the titular characters. These are perhaps two of the most awkward (in an almost charming way) characters I have ever come across, which was the root of a lot of the humour, and they are both afflicted with the belief that they are a burden to their loved ones, Valdin in particular, and therefore not worth the effort, despite craving connection. As of the start of this book they have both been pretty unlucky in love and are struggling to define what they want in life. The loneliness they feel as a result is obvious and consuming. Seeing them through the eyes of each other felt so intimate in a way because they loved each other dearly despite their perceived flaws and knew each other so well. It was wonderful to watch them slowly come to realize that they were deserving of love as they learned more about themselves and what they wanted from their relationships. I am always a sucker for a character who believes that they are unlovable, but is repeatedly and thoroughly proven wrong by those around them.

The rest of the family and supporting characters were fantastic as well. Keeping track of the ways in which everyone was related or connected to each other was like a full-time job. The character index at the beginning was very helpful for that. I adored the completely open queer aspect of this book. I will say that the ending was maybe a little rushed, but I thought it fit with the overall chaos that had been a common thread throughout.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the e-arc!

Greta and Valdin are two siblings who have very common yet singular experiences. These two go through separate crises while navigating family life. I loved this I thought it was absolutely hilarious. The writting was so unique I felt especially close, like they were my own family. The storyline follows two adults in their twenties trying to figure out what their future will look like. And it’s so refreshing reading a life crisis book with humour! The openly queer aspects, the immigration stories and the family history and their drama was so juicy! This was so original and I love reading books that go out of the norms. Everything about Greta and valdin reminded me of my siblings and nothing can be more heart warming

I wanted to try a different genre by going for this novel, but I just didn't connect with it.

The start of the novel had a glossary of who everyone was, because honestly, it needed it. Having to scroll back wasn't enjoyable. I don't know if this was supposed to be based on a true story, because in my opinion, that's the only reason to have three people with the same name so did this exist by choice? If so, it was an odd one to make.

The humour in it I could see, but it was too stretched out to be a hit for me and the siblings became a bit annoying to be honest.

What a delight! A book just as likely to break your heart as it is to tickle your funny bone, this charmer is a one-of-a-kind read, featuring a one-of-a-kind family who, come what may, will love and support their offspring. (And their offspring. And all the interconnected others that may end up sharing their table or home.)

Greta and Valdin Vladisavljevics are (young) adult siblings, each of them struggling in their own way with the heart-heavy hazards of growing up, as they share an apartment, and lean on each other, as unobtrusively (yet firmly) as they can manage.

Based in Auckland, New Zealand, G and V hail from exquisitely unflappable parents, whom we come to know as their beautiful and mysterious Māori mom and Russian Professor of funghi Dad. As weird and wonderful as the situations are that arise, nothing seems to rock this parentage, with their wide-open attitudes of fluidity, hilarious eccentricities, and unquestionable love for their family.

As Greta, twenty-six years old, a graduate student in Russian comparative literature, falls in and out of love, she is by turn wistful, raging, insecure, naive, vulnerable and oh so funny in her offbeat observations on life, politics, academics, social situations, the women she secretly adores, and the horrors she must navigate to find love and her soul-mate.

Valdin, or V as he is commonly known, is five years older, formerly a physics professor, and now a minor New Zealand TV celebrity. V has OCD, (managed, but lapsing him into stresses over many things), a sharp eye for fashion, and is subject to rambling (hilarious) imaginings of the worlds everyone (but himself) are presumably experiencing. V, deep in his heart, is achingly lonely, - never having recovered from his love for an older man, the sweet and gentle Xabi, who also happens to be the siblings uncle’s husband’s brother.

And so we see the start of the multitude of tangled relationships, interconnected stories, and oddball characters (most of whom you may find yourself just wanting to hug) you will meet between the pages of this fast and fabulous read.

If you’re at all like this reader, the Vladisavljevics are a family you will wish you could spend more time with, captured warmly in an infinitely accessible book you will find hard to put down. A favorite 2024 pick already, akin in humor and charm to a millennial-driven “Lessons in Chemistry”, - for this reader, one can only hope there will be a sequel.

A great big thank you to the author and the publisher for an ARC of this book. All thoughts presented are my own.

I really loved this touching book about a brother and sister. This tale was so queer and dynamic, the characters were all so interesting and the extended cast added so much charm. The central love story was cute and exciting, and I especially loved the second half.
I did find that the two characters had very similar voices, making it occasionally confusing to remember whose perspective a chapter was from. Overall though, I loved these characters and thoroughly enjoyed my time with them.

Don’t let the fun cover fool you.

I think I was the wrong audience for this one. If you are a young twenty something, who fancy’s themselves an intellectual then this is your jam. The level of pretension lost its ability to be clever and came off as snobbery dressed up in fancy vocabulary, too try hard for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC all opinions are my own.

I loved this instantly!! I laughed out loud and read out-of-context excerpts to the people in the room with me while I was reading. There is so much love in this book!! It might be the funniest thing I’ve ever read!

I always write thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for e-ARCs but this book truly touched me and I am very thankful to have read it! I will be pre-ordering it to read again once it comes out!!